Talk Bronx New York

San Fran Zoo Policies Under The Scope

A new team of national experts, including specialists from the Bronx and Houston zoos, will review the emergency and safety policies and procedures during a visit to the San Francisco Zoo on Saturday, officials said.

The peer review was called last month after a Siberian tiger escaped from its grotto on Christmas Day and attacked three people, killing a visitor and injuring two of his friends before being shot and killed by police.

The seven-member group includes architect Keith Larson with Jones & Jones Architects, who specializes in zoo design, Pat Thomas, general curator at the Bronx Zoo, and Rick Barongi, who leads the Houston Zoo.

“I hope we review everything from A to Z to make sure nothing like this ever happens again and we have the best zoo in the world,” said Larry Martin, the president of the city’s Recreation and Park Commission, during a meeting Thursday. The city owns the zoo and its animals, but a nonprofit group operates it.

The zoo has completed the first phase of improvements, including the extension of the concrete moat walls in the big cat grotto. The walls, which now measure 19 feet, exceed the minimum guidelines of 16.4 feet set by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Hot wire, which emits electric shocks to animals that contact it, has been installed along the moat walls; new lighting and cameras will be added in March.

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Tour The New Yankee Stadium! 

Not every construction site has a limestone and granite fixture so grand that it looks as if it were built 85 years ago, which is the whole point. It says something about the spirit of the new ballpark going up in the Bronx that the brilliant gold letters literally are carved in stone: “YANKEE STADIUM.”

“We’re bringing the ghosts with us,” said Lonn Trost, chief operating officer of the Yankees, who yesterday conducted the first full-scale media tour of the place that was inspired by The House That Ruth Built next door.

By “ghosts,” he meant all the tradition, the legends, the good memories and the larger-than-life aura that all say “Yankee.”

So the elegant vaulted arches are back at the entrance at Gate 4, and there are spots for the round eagle crests that were there on Opening Day in 1923. About half of the fabled white curved frieze (what fans used to call the façade) already is up, ringing the top of the grandstand as it did in the original Stadium.

Most of all, the park itself says “Yankee.” Trost said that early in the planning process, he talked toGeorge Steinbrenner about selling the naming rights, the way most stadiums and arenas have done. It could have meant as much as $50 million a year, Trost said, but the club’s hierarchy said the place just wouldn’t be the same.

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Number 7 The Lucky Number For A School & It’s New Principal

Junior High School 22, in the South Bronx, had run through six principals in just over two years when Shimon Waronker was named the seventh.

On his first visit, in October 2004, he found a police officer arresting a student and calling for backup to handle the swelling crowd. Students roamed the hallways with abandon; in one class of 30, only 5 students had bothered to show up.

“It was chaos,” Mr. Waronker recalled. “I was like, this can’t be real.”

Teachers, parents and students at the school, which is mostly Hispanic and black, were equally taken aback by the sight of their new leader: A member of the Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Hasidic Judaism with a beard, a black hat and a velvet yarmulke.

“The talk was, ‘You’re not going to believe who’s running the show,’ ” said Lisa DeBonis, now an assistant principal.

At a time when the Bloomberg administration has put principals at the center of its efforts to overhaul schools, making the search for great school leaders more pressing than ever, the tale of Mr. Waronker shows that sometimes, the most unlikely of candidates can produce surprising results.

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NASA Gives Bronx School Chance To Fly Weightless Wonder 

Lorraine Hansberry Academy of the Bronx, New York City, New York, to fly a student-designed experiment aboard the agency’s reduced gravity aircraft, the “Weightless Wonder.”

Lorraine Hansberry Academy will join 13 other NASA Explorer School (NES) teams selected for this unique learning experience to test science and math concepts in a weightless laboratory aboard the Weightless Wonder. The modified McDonnell Douglas DC-9 jetliner will fly a series of parabolic maneuvers — steep climbs followed by sharp descents. Each climb will produce about 30 seconds of hyper gravity, ranging from 1.8 to 2 g’s. When the C-9 “noses over,” each free fall will produce 18 to 25 seconds of
weightlessness. The teams will fly about 32 parabolas.

The immediate mission for the team of educators was to finalize the concept of their experiment and work with a NASA mentor to get their experiment flight-ready. The team selected several members to accompany and execute their experiment aboard the aircraft. Those educators have already
arrived at Ellington Field, a NASA aircraft facility near the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas to prepare for their flight next week.

“The goal of the NASA Explorer School Program is to equip the next generation of explorers. These flights are an illustration of how NASA can connect space, math and science to classrooms on Earth,” said Rob Lasalvia, NES Program Manager.

Lorraine Hansberry Academy was selected a NASA Explorer School in 2005, giving the school an opportunity to propose a reduced gravity experiment. The program enables schools and their communities to work with NASA in a three-year partnership to develop the nation’s future science, technology,
engineering and mathematics work force. There are now 200 teams, representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

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Robinson Cano Joins Yankees For 4 Year $30M Deal 

The Yankees traditionally have eschewed giving long-term contracts to their young players. Robinson Cano became an exception to that Thursday.

The Yankees finalized a four-year contract that guarantees second baseman Cano at least $30 million. With club options for 2012 and 2013, it could turn into a six-year, $57-million contract.

There have been times, general manager Brian Cashman said, that the Yankees have been on the path to getting something done, as with Derek Jeter years ago, but owner George Steinbrenner blanched. There have been other times, Cashman said, that the Yankees have wanted to do something but couldn’t get the player and agent to come to their negotiating neighborhood, as with a young Bernie Williams. But mostly, the Yankees simply haven’t tried to lock up players until they hit free agency.

“Robby is one of the emerging talents in the game,” Cashman said by phone. “He’s a tremendous hitter, and he’s dedicated to getting better and better … He has the chance, God willing, if he stays healthy and productive, he’s going to have a tremendous career. He’s already proven he can play in New York. When you have players that prove they can handle the stress and pressure of playing here, like Robby has, you’ve got to put your arms around them.”

Cano’s agent, Bobby Barad, said by phone: “We’re very happy. That was the goal when we started these conversations. We both knew each other quite well and had some conversations going back to as far as spring training. Just through those conversations, both of us had interest.”

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